Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Today's Special - - Lenora Bell

I met Lenora Bell at the 2014 RWA conference in San Antonio where she won the Golden Heart® for Best Historical manuscript. Not long after that, I had the opportunity to read the first chapter of what would eventually become her debut novel and I was captivated. I'm so excited to host her today as she celebrates the release of How The Duke Was Won. If you enjoy the books of Tessa Dare or Sarah MacLean, you won't want to miss How The Duke Was Won!Lenora Bell is a third generation Alaskan and her hometown still has no traffic lights or fast food, but the public library is going strong!

An English teacher with an MFA in Creative Writing, Lenora has traveled the globe using music to bring smiles to classrooms. She currently lives in Switzerland with her carpenter husband and two naughty tiger-striped kitties.

In 2014 she won the Romance Writers of America's Golden Heart® Award for Best Historical. She’s thrilled to be debuting with Avon Books and hopes you enjoy spotting her very first bad boy at a bookstore near you.Please give Lenora a warm Romance Dish welcome!

I have a thing for bad boys. You know the type. Motorcycles.
Tattoos. James Dean t-shirt sleeves rolled over bulging biceps. But the 21st
century didn’t invent bad boys. From the arrogant Darcy in Pride and Prejudice to the passionate Jamie in Outlander, I’m always searching for a wicked rogue in a cravat…or a
kilt. So to help with the hunt, I’ve prepared a handy list for how to spot
historical hotties.

Top Ten Ways to Spot
a Historical Bad Boy

1. Is his nose crooked from brawling in public houses? How
about his linen shirt—is it still on? Bad boys rarely stay fully clothed for
long. They’re always finding reasons to roll up their shirtsleeves, or plunge
into lakes and emerge with wet, transparent linen clinging to rock-hard abs.

2. If you just met the guy and he calls you poppet, pet,
love, or chit in a most infuriating manner...he’s an as-yet-untamed rogue.

3. Does he have a badass nickname like “Satanas” or “Devil
Earl” or “Lord Beelzebub”? Hell yeah, he’s a bad boy.

4. Are your knees weak? Is your face flushed with heat? Do
you feel a dangerous thrill? You may be in close contact with a bad boy.

5. If he’s prone to risqué innuendos and thinly veiled references
to his endowments…he’s definitely a
bad boy.

6. Is he always unbuttoning your gloves in public in a
sensual, pearl by pearl, manner? Yep. He’s a bad boy.

7. Inventiveness is the hallmark of scoundrels. He won’t
just kiss you. He’ll savor you. Slowly. In ways you haven’t even imagined yet.

8. You may have spotted a prime specimen if you discover a
dark, painful past. Bonus points if he has trouble sleeping at night. More
bonus points if he has literal scars from said dark past. Even more bonus
points if looking at you gives him hope.

9. Warriors need love, too. They just don’t know it yet. An
initial aversion to emotional intimacy is a sure sign you’ve found a bad boy.

And the number one way to spot a historical bad boy?

10. When he falls, he falls hard. And it’s only your love that can save him.

Lenora wants to know who's your favorite historical bad boy? You can choose from her picks, or throw another one into the mix :)PJ is giving away two copies of HOW THE DUKE WAS WON (winner's choice of print or Kindle).

and copies of four books featuring some of Lenora’s favorite
historical bad boys: Tessa Dare’s WHEN A SCOT TIES THE KNOT, Eloisa James’ FOUR
NIGHTS WITH THE DUKE, Beverly Jenkins’ DESTINY’S CAPTIVE, and Sarah MacLean’s
THE ROGUE NOT TAKEN.

Both giveaways are open internationally. Deadline to be included in giveaway is 11:00 PM (EST), April 27, 2016.

The pleasure of your company is requested at Warbury Park. Four lovely ladies will arrive… but only one can become a duchess.

James, the scandalously uncivilized Duke of Harland, requires a bride with a spotless reputation for a strictly business arrangement. Lust is prohibited and love is out of the question.

Four ladies. Three days. What could go wrong?

She is not like the others…

Charlene Beckett, the unacknowledged daughter of an earl and a courtesan, has just been offered a life-altering fortune to pose as her half-sister, Lady Dorothea, and win the duke’s proposal. All she must do is:

When secrets are revealed and passion overwhelms, James must decide if the last lady he should want is really everything he needs. And Charlene must decide if the promise of a new life is worth risking everything . . . including her heart.

98 comments:

Welcome, Lenora! I am so excited that How the Duke Was Won has finally launched into the reading world. I can't wait for my friends to read it! I'll be back to dish about my favorite bad boys as soon as Rachel and I take our morning walk. Your James has a very special place on my list!

Well! Another new author! Thank you! Checking your books out right after I post this. I have a soft spot for Sebastian in Devil in Winter but lately my thorn in the side bad boy is Eloisa James, Thorne! Loved his character in Three Weeks with Lady X. Welcome Lenora!

Congratulations on the release of How the Duke Was Won, Lenora. And what a delightful post! It was great fun reading it. One of my fav bad boys is Zachary Bronson in Where Dreams Begin by Lisa Kleypas. That man gets what he wants!

I've been hearing such great things about How the Duke Was Won. I can't wait to read it.

And I love lists! I'm addicted to beta heroes, but beginning with Heyer's Damorel, bad boys have also had a place in my heart. Other long-time favorites include Kleypas's Derek Craven, Putney's Reggie Davenport, and Loretta Chase's Vere Mallory, Duke of Ainswood, whom I adore almost as much as I do Dain. Lisa G. Brown's Billy Bob Walker and Nora Robert's Cameron Quinn and Rafe MacKade head my list of contemporary favorites.

Going old School - my favorite Historical Bad Boy of all time HAS to be James Malory from Johanna Lindsey's classic "Gentle Rogue"! Though King from "The Rogue Not Taken" swept my clean off my feet at the start of the year and I haven't regained my footing yet!

The book won't be out until May 31st but I predict readers everywhere will be falling in love with bad boy, Rhys Winterborne in Marrying Winterborne by Lisa Kleypas. Rhys and Helen are right up there with Derek and Sara from Dreaming of You, Evie and Sebastian from Devil in Winter and Win and Kev from Seduce Me at Sunrise in my "Favorite Lisa Kleypas Couples" hall of fame.

Sorry, Lenora. I'm just so darn excited about this book! I wasn't crazy about the first book in the series. I couldn't warm up to the heroine (still can't) but oh, the love I have for Helen and Rhys. This is vintage Kleypas!

Hi PJ! So sorry for the delay in responding, I'm in a wildly different time zone :) Absolutely! Book 2 is called IF I ONLY HAD A DUKE and will be released August 30! There's already a blurb and cover. This one is loosely inspired by The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Lady Dorothea and Dalton's story from Book 1. What do you think of the cover? xxoo! Lenora http://amzn.to/1TvjWG0

Congratulations on your debut book. I have to agree with the other commenters that said Lisa Kleypas writes great heroes. Nick O'Shea, in Meredith Duran's latest historical, Luck Be a Lady, was a terrific bad boy hero. He was a crime lord in Whitechapel that met a woman that runs an auction house.

I have to admit, the first ones who came to my mind were Dain, from Lord of Scoundrels, and Rhett Butler, from GWTW. I enjoyed your post and look forward to reading your novel, which is already on my TBR list.

I guess I don't have a particular bad boy because I tend to be a sucker for the good boys. However, if I may be snarky for a moment, I'd like to suggest my husband as a historical bad boy - he's an old guy who still likes to "get into trouble." :-)

I'm really looking forward to reading your new novel, Lenora, and may I add that you are a pretty lady. Not trying to sway you, just being honest! Congratulations!

I have to say that I loved Christopher Argent in Kerrigan Byrne's latest book "The Hunter". It has everything you could ever wish for, danger, passion, romance, and a dashing, tormented assassin. I was gripped from page 1 right up until the end. The blatant sexual chemistry between Christopher and Millie was sizzling. There's a serial killer on the loose out to get Millie and her son. I gave this book 5 stars after reading it. It's a stand alone book, but Dorian Blackwell from Kerrigan's first book (The Hunter) does make an appearance from time to time. These two guy are bad arse bad when working together!!

I honestly don't have just one favorite bad boy. However, another Gareth has a spot in my heart and keeper shelf. Grace Burrowes' GARETH: LORD OF RAKES from her Lonely Lords series is wonderful. Of course so are the rest of the lords. ;-)

Dear Lord, Lenora, you put into words all the things I love about a bad boys! All the things I felt but I never knew how to put into words. Thank you! Voss from Dark Rogue (The Vampire Voss) by Colleen Gleason is one of my favorite bad boys.

Hi PJ & LENORA! I'm so sorry that I missed you at RWA/SAN ANTONIO. We couldn't make it that year, but if you're attending RWA/SAN DIEGO This summer we'd love to get together with you. Ask PJ, she'll tell you we're okay.Anyway, I'd love to read your new book; it sounds just wonderful. I, too, adore Bad Boys. You give some fine examples. I will add Lisa Kleypas' Devil in Winter, Sebastian Saint James to the list.

Hi, Lenora! Congrats on your new release! There are a lot of bad boys I have loved over the many yeats of reading, but Rhett Butler from Gone With the Wind and Steve from Rosemary Rogers Sweet Savage Love series sticks out in my mind. Of course, I also love Jamie Fraser.

I am so loving this post!! Hello, Lenora!! Nice to meet you. I have a copy of this book on my nightstand right now...I just haven't gotten to it yet, but since you speak my language (BAD BOYS) I'm clearly going to have to hurry up and finish the current book and move to this one!

My ultimate bad boy love is still for Gareth, the Earl of Mayne in Pleasure for Pleasure. (He made appearances in other books, which is where I fell for him, but he was delicious.) I just remember a line about him being as tired as Lucifer...I loved that line. That's exactly the kind of bad boy I love--one that's almost broken from wear and needs some TLC. *LOL*

What fun to read the way to recognize a bad boy! My choices echo some already mentioned: Dain from Scoundrel, Sebastien from Devil in Winter, Derek Craven, Vander from Four Nights, and what about Tack from Motorcycle Man? Obviously, the bad boy really appeals to me.

FTC DISCLAIMER

While we purchase some of the books that we review at this site, the majority of the reviews posted are of books that we have received free from authors or publishers. For purposes of FTC disclosure, visitors to our site should assume that review books have been provided to us at no cost.

Contact Us

We will accept galleys, advance reader copies and books for review consideration. Please contact us at theromancedish@gmail.com for mailing instructions.

We welcome your comments and questions. Please email us at theromancedish@gmail.com.